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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Boston the AA Intellectual Mecca?
he significance of the greater Boston area's AA community derives not from its position as the nation's 13th largest (250,000, accounting for 6% of the area's 4.1 million) but from its unparalleled concentration of elite academics and scholars. The gravitational pull of institutions like MIT, Harvard, Brandeis, Northeastern, Tufts and Wellesley acts more compellingly on Asians than on other segments of the American population. They account for a stunning 20% of the 250,000 students attending the area's 60 colleges and universities.
AA Intellectual Mecca?
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A local Asian icon is the late An Wang, a Harvard alumnus whose 1951 invention of magnetic core memory enabled the computer revolution. Wang Laboratories has now faded into a cautionary tale of the perils of arrogance and ill-conceived family succession, but downtown Boston's gleaming Wang Center for the Performing Arts remains a magnificent memorial to the possibilities of Asian academic elitism. Rival MIT has the highest concentration of Asians (30%) outside of California and Hawaii -- as well as academia's highest suicide rate (10 since 1990).
This intellectual pressure cooker has spawned a culture of technological innovation and risktaking that has produced many of the seeds for the global tech sectors, including the vast corridor along Boston's own Route 128 comprising 5,000 tech companies employing over 200,000.
The Boston area's love-hate relationship with Asians began in 1875 when a small number of Chinese began pitching tents on land created several decades earlier by a land fill of the old South Cove mud flats. By the turn of the century several hundred Chinese had established a budding Chinatown of over two dozen businesses. In 1902, after the Chinese Exclusion Act was extended, police and immigration agents arrested 250 Chinese for not carrying alien registration papers. Despite sporadic hostility, Boston's Chinatown received steady patronage from locals. By 1931 it had grown to nearly a hundred establishments supporting 1,200.
Today Chinatown occupies 32 acres along Harrison Avenue between South Station and the Boston Commons. It has become one of Boston's most vibrant areas, with over 200 businesses that spill out into the theater district. Its several dozen restaurants are operated not only by Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also Vietnamese, Coreans, Thais, Filipinos and other Asian nationalities. Thanks to social and cultural activism emanating from the local universities, Chinatown enjoys support from many energetic organizations dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for its mostly recent-immigrant residents. It has become a centerpiece of Boston's efforts at cultural preservation and urban renewal but for most of the area's AA residents, Chinatown is a hot meal and an occasional touchstone to a heritage that is invisible in their suburban neighborhoods.
The young Asians drawn to Boston by the reputations of its elite colleges have mixed feelings about the area's post-graduation hospitality. Some suspect the area's businesses of discriminating against Asians. Others are less than comfortable with the perceived attitudes of locals. Few Asians who attend college in Boston settle there.
Is greater Boston the Asian American intellectual mecca? Or is it just third-base for ambitious heavyhitters?
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WHAT YOU SAY
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(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:09:58 PM)
I was just walking outside near MIT this evening and this tourist trolley was passing me by. There were also other people walking around. Some jackass in the trolley yelled in a generic mock Asian accent, "South Korea numba 1", and a group of people in the trolley laughed. I was confused and shocked at first and didn't know whether it was actually a South Korean soccer fan yelling that. Anyway, the laughter was definitely the kind you hear after a racist joke; cheering would have been the appropriate response had the remark been a statement of pride from a South Korean. I felt like running after the trolley (it's not that fast) and chasing that guy down...
There are lots of tourists (white and Asian) around here lately... along with new students and their visiting families. You see a lot more Asians, though. Guess some racist rednecks are insecure about Asians dominating the top universities in the U.S.
Raging Asian
Tuesday, July 30, 2002 at 16:09:10 (PDT)
Whoops, realized that Nomo didn't pitch a no-hitter in Boston. I think it actually was in Baltimore. Too bad they traded him. Don't think Boston has an Asian sports player now. We need an Ichiro-type player here in Beantown. It would even be better if there was an AA one.
Asian New Englander
Sunday, July 28, 2002 at 21:34:37 (PDT)
Been in New England for over a decade. Was originally from SF, I thought Bostonians were a little rude, and percieved most of it as racism. The Boston accent takes a while to get used to, and the Chinatown is a bit shabby.
I've come to realize that the "rudeness" that outsiders see is due to the culture. I've talk to whites from outside New England who agree with me. This "rudeness" isn't just directed towards Asians. I've noticed that Bostonians love to complain. They complain from the weather to the high cost of the Mass Pike tolls. Most people here drive to work during a blizzard. The Red Sox can't win a World Series, and they seem to be envious (or jealous, I don't know) of New York. (Sorry, there is no rivalry between the Yanks and the Sox. Rivalry implies the team wins half the time).
They always seem to complain all the time about the weather. It's either "too hot" or "too cold". In this place you can experience all four seasons. (If you do visit here, best to come in the fall. The foliage is really nice). Snow can suck, but I learned to live with it. I picked up snowboarding and I can't wait for the season to start.
The AA population has grown in the decade I've lived here. When I first moved here, I was one of three asians in my graduating class of 200. Now I see more AA here. It may be due to the boom in tech companies here over the past few years. It's not just AA that have grown. I see more growth in Middle Eastern American population as well. And you do see mix of races in dating. I've dated different races in college.
For those that want to move here, there are a few things you have to know about this place. Yeah the schools here are top notch, (Got Harvard, MIT, Yale in CT). But the driving sucks in Boston. The "big dig" project makes driving through town a stressful situation, better off just using the public transit system while in the city. When winter hits, driving in snow sucks, and the salt they put on the road eats away at your car if you don't wash it every week.
There is a pretty big economic growth in this area, but rent in Boston is pretty outrages. Even in the suburbs you can spend over a grand for subpar rooms. The lifestyle pace is pretty fast. San Fran has a more laid back attitude. The cost of living here can be very hard for the poor college student.
In raising a family, you're better off going to the smaller cities with the lower cost of living. Providence RI is actually a pretty neat city(though the mayor is a crook). Worcester MA is dirty with nothing to do there, but I've found it relatively safe when I lived there. Lowell MA has a good number of AA there, but be careful of where you park. In these cities you do have a growing AA as well as a minority population (think Providence has a minority majority population). Stay away from Hartford CT and Springfield MA, people are leaving these cites in droves because these cities just plain suck. Half of Hartford is boarded up due to crime. Springfield is pretty isolated and there aren't many asians there.
Is Boston the intellectual mecca for AA? No, a lot the Asians you see in the grad school seem to be from Asia. Is it AA friendly? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I've noticed that people seem to warm up to you if you wear a Red Sox cap and are able to discuss New England sports with the guys, (esp about the red sox). And there are asians rooted in Boston culture(the former conductor of the Boston pops is Asian, Hideo Nomo pitched a no hitter in Fenway last year, and there is the "Wang"center), but it's really nothing to toot your horn about.
You still hear asian jokes, but I learned to live with it. I just make fun of them back. Laugh at the way they talk (ie chowda). At every World series time just bring up Billy Buckner's name. Alot of men here do look like Kennedys and Adam Sandler. And if they critisize about the asian culture I just think of the sex abuse scandals in the churches here in New England.
Asian New Englander
Sunday, July 28, 2002 at 19:45:03 (PDT)
I've been in the Boston area for fourteen years. Originally from Honolulu (now that's THE Asian-American mecca, culture-wise). There are a few Asians in greater Boston, esp. Cambridge. Most are well-educated and socioeconomically solid. However, Asians are still a largely misunderstood minority, and highly underrepresented in the media. When I visit Honolulu once a year, it's a weird feeling of re-enfranchisement. Being Asian-American in Honolulu is like being Irish-American in Boston-- you are a member of the common stock. But in Boston, Asians are definitely a minority, with no strong voice or representation. For example, if you are AJA, they associate you more with Pearl Harbor zero pilots than the 442nd, you know what I mean? I'm not really complaining; it's just a fact of life here. If you choose to live here, that's part of the deal.
Yonsei
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 12:55:49 (PDT)
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